Lapierre Quickest on Friday at Portimao

Photo: DragonSpeed

Nicolas Lapierre has set the pace in Free Practice 1 for the European Le Mans Series season finale, taking his DragonSpeed car to the top of the timesheets early in the Friday afternoon session.

The Frenchman posted a lap time of 1:34.182 in his No. 21 Oreca 07 Gibson less than ten minutes into the 90-minute session and was unbeaten throughout the remainder. 

The Panis Barthez Competition Ligier JS P217 Gibson was the second fastest car in the session with Nathanael Berthon going 0.240 seconds slower than the DragonSpeed entry.

SMP Racing, meanwhile, made it three constructors in the top three with Matevos Isaakyan in its Dallara P217 Gibson setting a time seven-tenths off the pace.

The championship-leading G-Drive Racing Oreca was fourth fastest with Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel.

AT Racing’s Mikkel Jensen led the way in LMP3 with the No. 9 Ligier JS P3 Nissan posting a time of 1:40.758.

The Norma M30 Nissans of Duqueine Engineering’s Antonin Borga and Oregon Team’s Dario Capitiano completed the top three in class.

Matt Griffin topped the GTE class in the Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE while Will Stevens was second in JMW Motorsport’s similar car.

Euan Hankey took the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE to third, meanwhile.

Free Practice 2 will get underway at 9:50 a.m. local time on Saturday ahead of Qualifying at 2:40 p.m.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.